The Secret to Impromptu Speaking

Learning to speak without notice is like learning to ride a bike; it might seem difficult at first but with the right training you will soon be able to speak fluently with ease.

The secret is in reprogramming your brain to think ahead while speaking. You will soon develop the skill of speaking about one thing while thinking about another: Everybody picks up this skill with some practice.

At Toastmasters we build your skills by giving you a topic to speak on for one minute or so, without notice. We call it Table Topics. At Aspire Toastmasters you start with simple topics like ‘Tell us about your first driving lesson’, which develops your ability to describe an event with which you are familiar. After you master that skill we give you ever more challenging topics which require you to use imagination and soon you are able to easily answer questions such as, ‘How would you encourage people to volunteer more?’ and later ‘Three things I learnt from my dog’. More advanced speakers are able to respond effectively to questions such as, ‘Tell us a story involving a tractor, a computer and a fish’.

An added benefit to this training is that it develops your ability to quickly formulate a coherent response to an unexpected question and deliver it with confidence. This might be very useful in your employment or a job interview, for example.